In his three years as AMAN chief, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, just appointed OC Northern Command, was credited with enhancing the corps’ operational capabilities. But, on the debit side, he made three major miscalculations: He overrated the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s life expectancy, underrated Bashar Assad’s chances of survival; and did not recommend that Israel halt Hizballah’s military intervention in the Syrian War. Kochavi shared his second mistake with Prince Bandar, who paid for it by his replacement as Director of Saudi Intelligence on April 15.

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has won little backing at home for his outspoken remarks against US policies. Up until Saturday night, March 22, Binyamin Netanyahu let him face the music alone when John Kerry demanded an apology – and even when the State Dept dismissed his clarifications to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as not enough. debkafile: But Ya'alon is good company in the region, where Saudi King Abdullah, his intelligence chief Prince Bandar, Egyptian ruler Gen. Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi and others slam US policies even more vigorously.

Pakistan refused to heed Obama’s demands to back of its nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis will be more flexible on non-nuclear issues like Syria in order to repair the fraught relations with Washington.

Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan was reported by debkafile’s US and Saudi sources Wednesday, Feb. 19, to have been removed from policy-making in Riyadh. The prince was the live wire of kingdom’s drive against President Barack Obama’s détente with Tehran. Bandar’s removal is one up for Obama, and a significant loss for Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu as the only other Middle East leader ready to publicly decry US policies on Iran and Syria. No word about the prince’s status has come from Riyadh since he dropped out of sight a month ago.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are pulling no punches in their determination to root out the Muslim Brotherhood from their neighborhood even though this flies in the face of Barack Obama as he heads out for a visit to Riyadh next month.

Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan may be taking a fresh, pragmatic look at Tehran, newly promoted by the US and Russia, as senior regional power, as he plans a trip to Washington for possible fence-mending talks.

Nasrallah secretly visited to Tehran to discuss plans for avenging the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut of which they accuse the Saudi intelligence chief. Iran and Hizballah are bent on revenge.

The gunning down of Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis, a high-ranking Hizballah commander and close crony of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah raised the stakes of the clandestine war between Saudi Arabia and Iran - or rather between Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Iran’s Al Qods Brigades commander Qassem al-Soleimani. Hizballah blamed Israel for the assassination because it is easier to reach for revenge than Saudi Arabia. Al-Laqqis was killed in the underground parking lot of his home by five shots to the head and throat.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency “reveals” that Saudi Arabia and Israel’s Mossad are “co-conspiring to produce a computer worm more destructive than the Stuxnet malware to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program.” It claims that Saudi intelligence director Prince Bandar Bin Sultan and Israel’s Mossad chief Tamir Pardo met in Vienna to decide on the virus attack on Nov. 24, shortly after the six world powers signed their first interim nuclear agreement with Iran in Geneva, and that a week earlier, Prince Bandar visited Israel secretly with French President Francois Hollande.

A Saudi warning reached Western intelligence agencies, including Israel, on Nov. 14, that Iran and Hizballah were plotting a major terrorist operation in Beirut as a diversionary stunt, debkafile reports exclusively. The tip-off came three days before twin suicide bombings struck the Iranian embassy and the Hizballah stronghold in Beirut Tuesday, Nov. 19, killing 25 people and injuring nearly 150. It was devised, said Saudi intelligence, to convince Hizballah fighters consigned against their will to the Syrian battlefield that they were fighting to defend their own home bases.